Gene Editor: Innovative Use of Zebrafish Models in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a multifactorially induced complex disease, and the most technologically mature animals for IBD disease modelling are mainly mice. However, compared with rodents, zebrafish are more efficient and convenient, with their short growth cycle, high reproductive capacity, small size, light weight, embryonic transparency, and high homology with human intestines, which makes it easy to perform observation of continuous pathological changes and high-throughput drug screening studies. With the development of sequencing technology, gene editing of sterile zebrafish using CRISPR technology plays an important role in revealing in-depth the colony-immune interactions and the pathogenesis of IBD.